Alleging criminal negligence in restoration of power supply in Phailin cyclone hit Ganjam district, the CPI (M) activists on Tuesday filed an FIR in a city police station against authorities of private power distribution company, Southco as well as against Anil Ambani, the head of Reliance Infrastructure, which manages the Southco.
The CPI (M) activists led by State secretariat member Ali Kishore Patnaik, city unit head Basant Nanda, peasants’ activist Kailash Sadangi took out a rally in the city against the failure of the Southco to restore power to all parts of natural calamity hit Ganjam district even after five weeks of the holocaust. They held demonstration in front of the corporate office of the Southco in the city and then reached the Baidyanathpur police station to lodge the FIR.
According to the complaint lodged by Mr Ali Khsore Patnaik, the private company was playing with life of common man by not getting power supply restored to most rural areas. “Although power supply is an essential service, the private company is behaving just like a profit oriented business concern,” said Mr Patnaik.
He also said the Southco authorities were now compelling villagers to transport electric poles to get power restored in their areas. On Monday three persons died and several others were injured when a tractor by which villagers of Dunkelpadu on their own were transporting concrete poles meant for power restoration to their village overturned near Kanisi. The CPI (M) demanded the Southco to provide Rs 20 lakh compensation to family of each of the persons killed in the accident and Rs. 10 lakh for each injured.
In the complaint, the CPI (M) alleged that complete disruption of power supply to all parts of Ganjam district due to the cyclone also has human element behind it. The Southco had also failed in restoration work in Ganjam district after the super cyclone of 1999. At that time also it had shown criminal negligence. The company has repeated its failures again in 2013. Even the district administration and the State Energy Secretary have also complained of negligence in power restoration work by the private power distribution company.
The CPI (M) activists alleged that since 1999, the Southco had not invested anything for improvement and maintenance of infrastructure.
In 2008 the Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC) had expressed shock over the state of poorly maintained power supply system in Berhampur.
The OERC had investigated through a probe team which had found that the distribution elements were either not maintained properly or were maintained on a patch work basis. The probe team had also repeated the allegations of the common man that routine maintenance was not there and the tenets of maintenance manual were not being followed. The devastating effect of Phailin on power sector and lack of preparedness of the Southco for restoration work hinted at the truth behind the report of the OERC.
“The greatest irony is that the only profit oriented Southco has got its staff strength reduced from 4,400 in 1999 to 3,500 in 2013 while the electricity consumers have increased many folds”, said CPI (M) leaders.
